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Our family is growing in many ways... Growing in numbers, knowledge, parenting skills, growing in love, in our faith, growing our culinary skills (if you can call it that), growing without gluten (some of us), growing green...........

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Coffee Filter Wreath

Apparently DIY wreaths are all the rage in blogger land. If you read craft blogs, you've probably seen them. I wasn't reading craft blogs, so I wasn't aware they were all over the place. I saw a pic of a burlap wreath that someone I know made, and from there I found tutorials for those and coffee filter wreaths. I still plan on trying one of the burlap ones later because they are pretty cute and look terribly easy, but I wanted to do something different first (than what my friend did, I mean - didn't want to copy too much). ;)

So, I sat down one evening to make myself a coffee filter wreath. Was it easy? Yes. Very. Did it take long? Nope. An hour or a bit longer, while watching tv and taking my time. Was it cheap? Pretty much. I got the foam wreath at JoAnn's (without a coupon...), brown coffee filters are pretty cheap, and then some pins. (Don't tell Ryan that after I started making the thing, I read you can find the wreaths and filters at the *dollar* store.... Whoops.)

The good thing about making this wreath is that there is no right or wrong. It is not meant to be perfect or a specific way. You just go with it.

The bad thing about making this wreath is that there is no right or wrong. It is not meant to be perfect or a specific way. You just go with it.

Going with it is hard for me sometimes...Trying not to make something perfect is hard for me sometimes. Not having a "right" way to do something is hard for me sometimes.

Or all times. Whatever.

As I started out...and pretty much until I was almost finished, I kept wondering Am I doing this right? Does this look right? Should I be doing more of this? Less of this? and checking the tutorial I was using from another blog. It's ridiculous. Then I would tell myself to relax, get over it, and just press on.

So, if you make this and you start off thinking it looks like a hot mess, just press on. Push through it to the end. You might consider giving up halfway through. I thought about it a few times. Don't. Go with it. You might not find that as difficult as I did...

I didn't take pictures of the steps or anything. I really wasn't sure it was working... But here's the tutorial I used. And really, if you google "coffee filter wreath" you'll get (more than) plenty of hits. There are some with white filters, but I personally like the brown. I like how the tutorial I used...her wreath used fewer filters and looked looser, but in the end, I think mine turned out pretty ok. I finally stopped trying to fold the filters just right and did them all randomly. I fluffed them up some at the end and moved some around if it needed it. I love how it's not perfect in the end - you don't want this thing to be perfect! Don't put it somewhere that will get wet if it rains, though. These would look good inside, too. I'm trying to cut out dust collectors, though (how on earth would you clean this thing??) and have no really good place to hang one inside right now, so it's on our front door - where I needed something to hang.

4 comments:

Thanks! I kind of like it simple without anything for now. I thought about a bow, though. For one thing, I wondered how to add it without it pressing the filters down or how to get it to stay on just right..b/c the filters stick up quite a bit away from the wreath. So, I'm not sure. I did see some with bows, I think. I know I saw some of the burlap wreaths with little flowers, bows glued (I'm assuming) on. I'm not sure how I would do it, though - what kind of bow, flower, etc... Maybe you should make one with a bow and let me know how it works for you. ;)

Connie - Yes, really just about an hour! :) Maybe not even that long if you're better at getting over the perfectionist stuff. ;) Once I got into it and allowed myself to just randomly bunch the tips and pin it in, it was pretty quick-moving. The biggest problem I'm currently having it keeping it on the hook on the door! It's so lightweight. I even taped the back of the wreath to the door, but it sometimes still falls off if it's windy out. BUT it doesn't seem to hurt it! Probably helps the imperfect form of it. Haha!

And a lot of other blogs do seem to say they got the wreath and filters at the dollar store, so I hope that's the case. :) Even if you can't find it there, it still didn't cost me much.